110TH MLB WORLD SERIES PREVIEW PRESS CALL QUOTES AND REPLAY INFORMATION
New York – This afternoon, FOX Sports conducted a press call to preview its coverage of Major League Baseball’s 110th World Series. This year’s Fall Classic, the 15th consecutive broadcast by FOX and the network’s 17th overall, begins Tuesday, Oct. 21, live and in prime time from Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City as the AL Champion Royals host the NL Champion San Francisco Giants.
Highlights of today’s call are transcribed below. To listen to the entire press call, please dial 888-203-1112 and enter passcode 1221196 when prompted.
MLB on FOX analyst Tom Verducci says the Royals and Giants are both built well for the postseason:
“When you look at one team that has the seventh-best record in baseball and one team that has the ninth-best record, at first blush, you may be surprised to see this is our final two. But the way they play in the postseason, it’s not a surprise. They play clean baseball. They have great bullpens and they put the ball in play. Their style of play is made for postseason baseball, and that’s why I’m expecting more exciting games because these teams keep games close and they like them close.”
MLB on FOX analyst Harold Reynolds says he would not have predicted this World Series matchup at the beginning of the season:
“If you’d have asked me in April, I’d say, absolutely I’d be surprised. But, if you watched down the stretch during the second half, particularly September, when you started to see the Kansas City bullpen come together and the way they played, I would say no, it’s not a surprise to watch them end up in the World Series and be able to go through the American League like they did. The surprise is that they went through undefeated, but not that they are in the World Series.
FOX Sports play-by-play broadcaster Joe Buck says the Royals and Giants both have similar styles of play:
“The way they [the Royals and the Giants] win games is just a relentless attack with great bullpens. They play the game very similarly. They have good defense and outstanding versatility in their bullpens. While they don’t overwhelm you with offensive numbers – there are no huge slugging statistics – but just ask the Cardinals and the Orioles, they find a way. So no, it doesn’t surprise me at all. I’m thrilled. This is going to be a fantastic World Series.”
FOX Sports President & COO Eric Shanks on retiring MLB Commissioner Bud Selig:
“The philosophy Commissioner Selig has used throughout the league has helped make the game of baseball stronger. He’s left the game in a better place than he found it by shepherding it through. It’s a testament that FOX has been allowed to build business both locally and nationally and even launch a new business through the partnership with Major League Baseball. During the course of this World Series we will hopefully be able to pay tribute to Commissioner Selig and the legacy that he leaves.”
Verducci says it’s fitting that the Royals, a small-market team, are playing in Selig’s final World Series as Commissioner:
“The fact that we have Kansas City in the World Series is another testament to what he’s done to grow the game. He always used the phrase ‘hope and faith’ – that every market at least has a shot of being in the World Series. I think back to where we were in the mid-90’s when we lost the World Series, and it was about competitive balance. No one uses those two words anymore because he’s delivered on that. In many ways, it’s a fitting final World Series for him.”
Reynolds says star players will have the biggest impact on this year’s World Series:
“One of the things I always look at in a World Series is the star players and how they are going to perform. You’ve got to recognize when greatness is upon you, and Buster Posey is on his way to a Hall of Fame career. His home runs and RBIs are right up there. You look at the year Madison Bumgarner has put together, and I know we talk a lot about (Clayton) Kershaw, but what he [Bumgarner] has been able to do, and he’s only 25 years old. You start looking at that, and on the other side there are a lot of good stories. Alex Gordon was the No. 1 pick in the country, he got sent down to the minors and moved to the outfield. He’s transformed his game. There’s a lot of great stuff, but I still go back to wanting to see what Buster Posey does in another World Series.’”
Buck on how he prepares to call a World Series, which attracts a larger and different audience than regular-season and other playoff games:
“There are obviously more people under the tent now, and you have to treat it that way. You always have to walk a fine line of not insulting the core viewer and not belaboring things that the real fans that have been watching these two teams all year long already know. It’s a juggling act, but you can’t assume that people know who these guys are. I don’t care who the matchup is, you can’t make that mistake. So, I go back to the early notes, back to what I had going into the LCS, and then you go from there after you establish the foundation, then you start tracking it as you go through a seven-game series.”
